A Heart of Blades
by MysticQ
Summary: Evolution is usually seen as a blessing among trainers. For a certain Kabuto, it's more like a curse. What will happen when his body undergoes the change on an island that's never seen a Kabuto evolve before?


Author's Note: So, I got this idea about a month ago, and decided to make a fanfic for it. It's been a long while since I've done a Pokemon fanfic anyway. Hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: Not a chance.

/OO/

Somewhere in the Kanto region existed a tiny island overlooked by nearly all across the land. This island was unique in that there was only one type of Pokemon that inhabited it, along with the people that coexisted in a single, closely-knit village. That Pokemon was Kabuto. Due to how isolated the island was from the rest of the region, and that the Kabuto were all kept as pets, no one on the island had ever seen a Kabuto evolve. The islanders didn't even know that Kabuto could evolve into anything. Their pets never had to fight, since the islanders provided food, water, and shelter for the creatures they held so dear, and battling for sport or for fun was not something that took place on the peaceful island. Naturally, evolution just wasn't something the Kabuto ever needed to go through.

One morning, just as the sun was rising over the horizon, a young girl with sandy blond hair in a simple braid down her back and pale green eyes arrived at the east shore of the island, her pet Kabuto clutched in her arms. She wore a bright orange one-piece swimsuit with yellow flowers along the side, though the colors of her clothing paled in comparison to the smile she wore. Behind her was her mother, who wore a long, light green skirt, a pale pink tank top, tan colored sandals, and a bracelet made of seashells on each wrist. She had dark blue eyes, and long, chocolate brown hair kept back in a ponytail.

The little girl looked at her mother, who smiled back at her and nodded her head. With a whoop of joy, the girl ran towards the water, eager to get in and swim with her beloved pet. "Come on, Kabbie!" she said as she approached the water. "Let's swim until we can't move our bodies anymore!"

The Kabuto in the girl's arms, Kabbie, let out an affirmative cry of its name, just as eager as his owner was for some fun in the water. He was always happy to follow his owner wherever she went, especially if it involved a swimming trip to the beach. He loved his owner more than anything else in the world, and so he would do anything to bring joy to her.

The girl's mother continued to smile as she watched her daughter head off to the water, walking forward until her feet just barely touched where the waves met the sand when they rolled in, and sat down, shivering a bit at the cool water that rushed over her toes. "Casey," she called out to her little girl. "Don't go too far now, sweetie!"

"I won't, mama!" Casey responded, stopping just where the water reached her knees, and grinned down at Kabbie. "Ready to get in, boy?" she asked, lightly scratching the top of his domed shell with her nails.

Kabbie let out a joyful cry in response, his four legs moving from side to side in anticipation of getting in the water.

Casey leaned down and set Kabbie on the sand in front of her feet, then stepped around him and ran forward into the water. "Let's go, Kabbie!" she said, looking back at the Kabuto and waving him toward her.

Kabbie surged forward, following his owner into the water. He swam to her side with ease, his buoyant shell keeping him near the surface of the water with hardly any effort on his part. Grabbing onto Casey with his forelegs, he climbed onto her back, holding tightly to the lightweight material of the one-piece swimsuit she wore as she dove beneath the surface.

Casey held her breath, feeling an added amount of glee at the familiar weight of her beloved pet on her back while she swam underwater. Her eyes stayed open, her vision slightly cloudy, but otherwise unbothered by the salt in the ocean water. She swam with her Kabuto like this almost every morning, so she was more than used to the faint sting in her eyes that the ocean waters caused.

The young girl's mother watched from a distance while her daughter swam with Kabbie, her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands on the sand behind her, supporting her weight as she leaned back on them. She began counting the seconds Casey spent underwater in her mind, wondering how long her little girl would last this time. Casey wasn't the best at holding her breath, but she found her daughter's habit of trying to outdo herself each time she swam to be endearing. _'One, two, three, four...'_

/OO/

Below the water, Casey was having a grand time with Kabbie. Without even realizing it, she'd began to swim further and further away from the shore, where the waters were a bit deeper. She ran her hands along the sand of the seafloor, nearly giggling at how it tickled her fingers. Just as she was about to start swimming towards the surface for air, she felt something rough like sandpaper brush past her leg.

/OO/

_'Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen...' _Casey's mother frowned, a bit of worry creeping into her heart. While moving around underwater, her daughter tended to come up for air much more frequently than if she stayed in one spot. She stood up from the dry area of sand she'd been sitting on, one hand brushing back her bangs as she began walking closer to the water. "Casey?" she called. "Casey, come up from the water now, sweetie!"

/OO/

Underwater, Casey let out a scream when the rough, sandpaper textured creature brushed by her again, this time scratching her arm. She oriented herself so that she was upright, frantically looking around the area when she saw it swimming right for her. Though the water made her vision slightly blurry, it appeared to be some kind of fish Pokemon with the colors red, blue, and yellow on its body. As it grew closer, it opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth and causing Casey to scream once more before hurriedly swimming for the surface.

Kabbie, seeing the approaching predator and sensing his owner's fear, pushed off of Casey's back and launched himself at the face of the Pokemon known as Carvanha. Just before he made contact, Kabbie flipped the back half of his body up, keeping his head protected as he slammed his shell into the jaw of the attacking Pokemon.

Unfortunately for Kabbie, his attack didn't injure the Carvanha at all. The fish Pokemon shook his head in surprise for a second, then quickly lunged at Kabbie and captured him in his powerful jaws. Kabbie let out a shriek of pain, his back protected by his shell, but his soft underbelly feeling the pain of razor-sharp teeth piercing through his skin. His eyes glowed red as he began struggling to get free, only causing further pain to himself, and for the first time in his life, he felt afraid. More Carvanha had suddenly appeared in the water, seemingly attracted to the scent of his blood and all swimming towards him instead of his owner. For that much, he was grateful.

Just as the young Kabuto's strength began to fade, he thought about his owner. Casey's smiling face entered his mind, and the desire to be held in her arms once more before he met his end grew inside of him. His struggles grew fainter as he tried to recall the feeling of her small arms encircling his body. The water began to turn red, and his eyes began to close before suddenly opening wide as a white light began to envelope his body.

/OO/

"Casey!" cried the young girl's mother when she saw her daughter burst out of the water in a panic. "Baby, what happened?" she asked, rushing through the water to check on her frightened child.

Casey caught her breath, taking in large gulps of air as she struggled to calm herself down. Her efforts proved to be futile, for she soon began to wail in pain, sluggishly moving towards her mother for comfort. "M-momma!" she sobbed out, feeling the sting of the ocean's water in her right arm. "Something scratched me! A big scary fish came and scratched me!"

Casey's mother met her daughter halfway, scooping her up into her arms without a care for her now wet clothing, and examined the little girl's arm. A large part of the side of her arm looked as if it'd been skinned, like Casey had somehow managed to rub her arm against something extremely rough and sanded away the top layer of her forearm, leaving behind a reddened surface dotted with drops of blood that dripped down and mixed with the seawater. "Casey, what happened to your arm?" the worried mother asked, her mind trying to come up with possible explanations for her precious girl's injury. Her daughter had said something scratched her, but this was no scratch mark!

Casey clung to her mother for comfort with an iron grip on her shirt, burying her face in her mother's neck while she continued to cry. The image of that horrible fish Pokemon swimming right at her and Kabbie, its mouth opened wide and sharp teeth bared, terrified her to no end.

Suddenly, the little girl became aware of a lack of pressure on her back. There were no tiny claws gripping her swimsuit, and there was no dome-shaped Pokemon clinging to her back. Kabbie, her beloved pet, was no longer with her. She gasped when the realization hit her, worried for her pet's safety, and lifted her head from her mother's chest to call out his name. "Kabbie!" she yelled, searching the water with frantic eyes. "Kabbie!"

Casey's mother looked at her daughter in concern, her eyes slowly widening as she realized that the child she was holding was missing one familiar Kabuto on her back. She quickly turned her head to look at the water her daughter had fled, worry striking her heart at the thought of Kabbie facing whatever had harmed her baby girl, and was stunned to see a bright, white light burst through the water. The light grew in size, stretching higher and higher until it was nearly five feet high and hurting her eyes to look at. Lifting a hand to cover her daughter's eyes, she turned them away from the wave of light and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to disappear.

Suddenly, the column of light burst apart, creating a rush of wind that ruffled the hair of both mother and child. Casey's mother shivered a bit, then slowly turned around to face the water again, curious, but afraid of what she would find.

Casey moved her mother's hand from her face, wanting to know what had made that light. "Kabbie?" she called. "Kabbie, are you there?" Nothing emerged from the water, but a change did occur shortly after Casey spoke. Before their eyes, the light blue, sparkling ocean water became stained with a crimson color, creating a vaguely oval-shaped red smear not far from where Casey had swum with her beloved pet Kabuto.

Mere seconds later, a form burst out from the reddened water, a form that was neither that of a carnivorous fish Pokemon, nor of a small, dome-shelled Pokemon, landing mere feet from Casey and here mother. No, the thing that stood in the water was something much more terrifying than a Kabuto or Carvanha.

The creature's head was wide and pail-shaped, and it along with its legs and tail were a shade of brown oddly similar to Kabbie's shell. It had strange, pointed spikes that seemed to jut out from its back horizontally, and its torso was pale white in color. Its arms... They weren't truly arms at all. They were thin, brown limbs, normal up until they reached where the elbows should be. At that point, they turned into long, wicked blades curled slightly inwards like twin sickles, as if the creature standing in the water before the two females were some kind of reaper. It's eyes were dark and slanted upwards, seeming to burn with a foreign intensity as the owner of the eyes locked its gaze onto Casey.

Casey stared at this creature in fear, her cheeks stained with tears that had stopped running, and her knuckles white from the iron grip she had on her mother's shirt. Her eyes were wide as saucers, and when the creature took a step towards her and her mother, she took in a sharp breath, her heart beginning to race in her chest. "Momma!" she cried, not taking her eyes off of the thing before them. "Momma, what is that?!"

Casey's mother, previously paralyzed by the sight of the terrifying creature that now stood before them, tore her eyes off of it to look down at her frightened daughter. "I don't know, sweetie, but we aren't staying around to find out!" She tightened her hold on Casey, sparing one last glance at the creature before turning around and running towards the village they lived in.

/OO/

The creature stood in the water by itself, the protective desire it'd been feeling erased by shock that he'd never felt before. The only thing he'd wanted to do was return to his owner's side and make sure she wasn't harmed, but... She and her mother had run from him. He had saved Casey from the dangerous predators in the water, and instead of thanking him and showering him with praise like he'd expected... She and her mother had screamed and ran away. Why? Why would they run? Didn't they know it was him? Kabbie? The pet they'd kept since the day he hatched?

Kabbie lowered his head, the sight of his new body catching his eye. He saw that he stood on two legs now instead of four. He saw that he had a more humanoid shape than his previous, dome-shaped body. He saw the blades at the end of his arms, wicked things that gleamed faintly in the morning light. He saw all of this, and he knew that he was different now. He no longer looked like the pet his family had raised, but instead like something out of one of the scary movies he'd watch with Casey while her parents slept and he was used as a shield to keep her safe from the monsters in the TV.

Monsters... He was a monster now, wasn't he? He may have looked like one, but he'd never do anything to hurt his family. He had to catch up to them and show them that he was still the Kabbie that they knew! He didn't know how he'd do it, but he knew that he had to give chase and... Do something. Anything to show them that no matter how scary he looked now, he was still the same Kabuto he'd always been.

His resolution in mind, Kabbie began to run on legs that didn't feel like his own after the two girls that made up his entire world.

/OO/

Author's Note: I was originally going to make this all one big document, but I decided to separate it into chapters. There will probably only be one or two more at the most after this. Also, confused on why Carvanha are in Kanto? Just wait. The next chapter will explain that. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter.

Also, to any of my followers waiting on updates, please check out my bio for my current update schedule. See you next time, lovelies.


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